Topic 7 Media Models

Question 1

What are the three stages of the hypodermic syringe model

Answer 1

• The first stage is the media sends out messages through the TV and social media
• The second stage is the audience receive their daily dose of media through injection, 5 hours a day.
• The third stage is that this affects how the audience feels and thinks just like a drug does – the hypodermic syringe effect.

Question 2

How does the hypodermic syringe model see the audience?

Answer 2

• audience are seen as unthinking and passive
• unable to resist the messages that are injected to them
• media messages fill the audience with the dominant ideology

Question 3

How does Buckingham criticise the hypodermic syringe model?

Answer 3

He argues children are much more media literate than we have previously assumed and they know the difference between real and fictional violence

Question 4

Outline the key features of the two-step flow model?

Answer 4

It begins by the media sending out the message. The opinion leader sees this message and adopts it. The opinion leader passes it on to others, discusses it and they accept it.

Question 5

What does Morgan say about porn and the media?

Answer 5

porn is theory and rape is practice

Question 6

What does Dworkin say about porn and the media?

Answer 6

• porn trivialises rape and encourages men to abuse and inflict pain on women
• porn gives unrealistic expectations, only fans idea, where women are objects leading to abusive crimes

Question 7

How can the feminist view of porn and the media be evaluated?

Answer 7

• Hald found that porn only worsens the behaviour of those who are already aggressive
• Malmuth argues porn only worsens the behaviour of those who are already agressive

Question 8

Give 3 criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model?

Answer 8

• it assumes the audience are passive, gullible and easily manipulated
• there’s little evidence that media content has immediate effects on the audience as the model suggests
• it assumes the media have enormous power

Question 9

What is an opinion leader?

Answer 9

A person of influence whom others in the network look up to and listen to.

Question 10

Who created the two step flow model?

Answer 10

Katz and Lazarsfed

Question 11

Give 2 weaknesses of the two step flow model?

Answer 11

• there’s different groups and individuals so ideas might get bounded around in discussion
• suggests audience is divided in two, opinion leaders active, viewers are passive, doesn’t explain why leaders are directly influenced when others aren’t

Question 12

Who created the cultural effects model?

Answer 12

neo marxists

Question 13

What does the cultural effects model say about the effects on the audience?

Answer 13

• the media has a drip-drip effect and gradually influences the audience over time
• audience interpret and respond differently

Question 14

What do the cultural effects model say about journalists?

Answer 14

• journalists can go against the ideology but they choose not to because they’re white middle class

Question 15

According to neo-marxists and the cultural effects model, why is a cultural hegemony established?

Answer 15

media audiences come to accept that the dominant ideology is common sense and the only sensible way of seeing the world

Question 16

Who created the encoding and decoding model?

Answer 16

Hall, neo marxist

Question 17

What is encoding?

Answer 17

Encoding is when media texts contain messages, an intended meaning which journalists expect audiences to believe. This is how the media creators spread the dominant ideology.

Question 18

What is decoding?

Answer 18

Hall suggests the majority of the audience receive and interpret media texts containing the dominant hegemonic view in the way it was encoded. However, some people may interpret it differently depending on their social characteristics, this is known as decoding.

Question 19

According to the cultural effects model, do audiences interpret in the same way?

Answer 19

some of the audience decode the same texts differently due to their social characteristics, like age, gender

Question 20

who created the reception analysis theory?

Answer 20

morley

Question 21

According to Morley, what are the 3 different ways people decode media?

Answer 21

• preferred reading - accepting the dominant ideology
• negotiated reading - generally accept but amend it to some extent
• oppositional reading - reject the preferred reading altogether

Question 22

How does the reception analysis see the audience?

Answer 22

• audiences are not passive or homogenous

Question 23

What is selective filtering?

Answer 23

Klapper argues that for media messages to have any effect it must pass through three filters –
- selective exposure
- selective perception
- selective retention
People form their own views beyond what the media tell them.

Question 24

What are the 3 filters of selective filtering?

Answer 24

• selective exposure
• selective perception
• selective retention

Question 25

What do the GMG discuss?

Answer 25

Philo argues most people accept the dominant media account presented to them. Decoding and selective filtering approaches underestimate the extent of the medias ability to mould the public understanding of social issues. Philo argues media did have an effect on how audiences think about the world, and plays a key role in focusing public interest on particular subjects.

Question 26

Give 3 limitations of cultural effects?

Answer 26

- reception analysis and selective filtering exaggerate the active role of media audiences, the media form of social attitudes and limit their ability to resist media messages - they fail to understand that journalists have some independence in their work and they can be critical of the dominant ideology - suggests the audience can have control over their response to the media, through selective filtering, however this gives an illusion of choice

Question 27

What does the uses and gratification model say about the audiences?

Answer 27

- audience is active and use media in various ways for their own pleasures and interests - they make conscious choices

Question 28

What do McQuail and Lull suggest a the uses and gratifications of the media?

Answer 28

- diversion - personal relationships - personal identity - surveillance - background wallpaper

Question 29

Give 3 limitations of the uses and gratifications model?

Answer 29

- overestimates power of the audience to influence media content - focuses too much on the use of the media by individuals, people often relate to media in social groups, eg women rejecting andrew tate - ignores wider social factors affecting the way audiences respond, common experiences and values mean many people will respond in similar ways

Question 30

How does the media cause violent behaviour?

Answer 30

- Media causes an immediate effect and creates copycat crimes. - Pornography causes unrealistic sexual expectations, leading to crimes like rape and sexual abuse.

Question 31

What are the 3 case studies to suggest that media causes violence?

Answer 31

- james bulger - columbine high school massacre - squid games

Question 32

How can Banduras evidence be used to support that media causes violence?

Answer 32

- Bandura looked for cause and effect between violence and behaviour - showed that those who watched the aggressive role models also showed the same behaviour - concluded that media content leads to copycat behaviour

Question 33

What did Banduras study conclude about the link between media and violence?

Answer 33

concluded that media content leads to copycat behaviour

Question 34

What does McCabe and Martin say about the link between violence and the media?

Answer 34

the media has a disinhibition effect, it convinces children the normal rules of society can be abandoned and we can resolve conflict in violence

Question 35

What does Newson argue about the link between media and violence?

Answer 35

- children and young people are desensitised because of prolonged exposure to media violence - media violence has a drip-drip effect on young people - they become socialised into accepting violent behaviour as normal

Question 36

What does Buckingham argue about the link between media and violence?

Answer 36

He argues children are much more media literate, they know the difference between real and fictional violence, therefore the media does not cause violence

Question 37

What does Young say about the link between media and violence?

Answer 37

- seeing the effects of violence makes us more aware of the consequences, so puts people off violence

Question 38

why is it so hard to operationalise violence?

Answer 38

because there is no one definition of violence eg to some boxing is seen as a sport, whereas to others this could be seen as violence